8

I think my update-manager is confused about what Ubuntu release is installed.

After having done sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade, I get the following (see below) when trying to upgrade from 18.04 to 20.04.

Any ideas why I get the "Sorry, no more upgrades for this system" message, when lsb_release -a reports that I have 18.04 installed - and any ideas on how to fix this?

bh@Medion:~$ sudo do-release-upgrade
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
Get:1 Upgrade tool signature [1.554 B]                                                                             
Get:2 Upgrade tool [1.336 kB]                                                                                      
Fetched 1.338 kB in 0s (0 B/s)                                                                                     
authenticate 'focal.tar.gz' against 'focal.tar.gz.gpg' 
extracting 'focal.tar.gz'

Reading cache

Checking package manager
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree        
Reading state information... Done
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net/danielrichter2007/grub-customizer/ubuntu bionic InRelease                             
Hit http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                                                           
Hit http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease                                                   
Hit http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease                                                 
Get:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease [88,7 kB]                                        
Fetched 88,7 kB in 0s (0 B/s)                                                                                      
Reading package lists... Done    
Building dependency tree          
Reading state information... Done

Sorry, no more upgrades for this system 

There will not be any further Ubuntu releases for this system's 
'i386' architecture. 

Updates for Ubuntu 18.04 will continue until April 2023. 


Restoring original system state

Aborting
Reading package lists... Done    
Building dependency tree          
Reading state information... Done
bh@Medion:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS
Release:    18.04
Codename:   bionic
bh@Medion:~$ uname -a
Linux Medion 4.15.0-122-generic #124-Ubuntu SMP Thu Oct 15 13:02:56 UTC 2020 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux
bh@Medion:~$ 

3 Answers 3

21

You seem to be running a 32-bit version of Ubuntu, as evidenced by:

There will not be any further Ubuntu releases for this system's 
'i386' architecture. 

That's correct. 32-bit desktops have been dropped from future releases, including 20.04. There were simply too few 32-bit desktop contributors and testers.

Your current 32-bit Ubuntu 18.04 will be supported for the full five years (until April 2023).

Ubuntu draws it's strength from volunteer contributors and testers. It's quite possible to resume 32-bit desktop development...if enough volunteers step up to handle the (considerable) work.

If you happen to be running 32-bit Ubuntu on 64-bit hardware, you can install 64-bit Ubuntu. You cannot "upgrade" to the different architecture -- it requires a new install.

5
  • The first line in dmesg reads: [ 0.000000] Linux version 4.15.0-122-generic (buildd@lgw01-amd64-003) (gcc version 7.5.0 (Ubuntu 7.5.0-3ubuntu1~18.04)) #124-Ubuntu SMP Thu Oct 15 13:02:56 UTC 2020 (Ubuntu 4.15.0-122.124-generic 4.15.18) Doesn't this indicate that I run 64 bit version (amd64)?
    – Anders
    Nov 7, 2020 at 21:26
  • I don't remember. It's not my laptop, but I installed Ubuntu on it several years ago and I might have installed some 32 bit software - to support some home/online banking. Is there any way I can check for that?
    – Anders
    Nov 7, 2020 at 21:48
  • I have started a 'find -type f -executable' and will do a 'file' on the output to see if there are any 32 bit executables.
    – Anders
    Nov 7, 2020 at 21:58
  • 8
    @Anders no, it means the kernel was built on an amd64 system (which is certainly possible and probably the expected situation now). You're running a 32-bit system, as shown by all the i686 in your uname output.
    – muru
    Nov 8, 2020 at 10:51
  • @muru, thanks. That also explains why dpkg --print-architecture as proposed by user535733 only lists i386
    – Anders
    Nov 8, 2020 at 11:43
3

Move your home directory to a different partition.

Make a list of all your installed software.

Shrink your root partition. 32GB is usually enough; 64GB should be plenty.

Make a new root partition elsewhere on the disk.

There are guides to doing all these steps online. Google how.

Install a new clean copy of 20.04.01 in your new root partition. Tell it that /home is your new home partition. Use the same username as before.

After this you can dual boot old 32-bit and new 64-bit systems.

9
  • 4
    Will this work if the OP's computer hardware is 32 bit? I would be sad if I did all that work and the 64 bit system failed to install. Nov 8, 2020 at 12:51
  • 2
    Unless the OP is running some ancient CPU that doesn't support EM64T (Intel) or AMD64, there should be no problem doing so. And I would then doubt whether those antiques can run Bionic in an acceptable or tolerable manner (chances are, such machines aren't even equipped with more than 128 or 256 MB of RAM).
    – iBug
    Nov 8, 2020 at 19:18
  • 2
    @iBug, my remaining 32-bit systems are running, respectively, 2 GB, 2.5 GB, and 4 GB of RAM.
    – Mark
    Nov 9, 2020 at 1:53
  • 3
    Before installing a 64-bit system I would advise you to test it from a "live demo". You just have to get the distribution on an USB Stick, an external drive, a DVD, … whatever. Then you can boot on it and choose "try Ubuntu" instead of install it (it works with Kubuntu and Lubuntu, I guess it's the same with Ubuntu). You would be completely reassured that your computer would be able to run the new 64-bits distro.
    – ChrisAga
    Nov 9, 2020 at 9:55
  • 2
    @iBug There were lots of netbooks sold with atom N270/N280 processors that were 32-bit only. Generaly with 1GB or 2GB of ram. Nov 9, 2020 at 14:47
3

No, it will not work, because subsequent Ubuntu versions DO NOT support 32-bit architecture. It just doesn't have the code/libraries/setup to run them. You would have to switch to another distribution that supports 32-bit systems and can apply the steps above to do so if you wish to continue using your machine on a GNU/Linux OS.

I personally would recommend LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition), which is Linux Mint's project of providing the same Mint experience, while using Debian instead of Ubuntu as a base. There are many others though, such as Vanilla Debian, Arch Linux 32, Gentoo, and many more that have active support for updates. Have fun distro shopping, OP!

1
  • LMDE is not "a complete out-of-the-box Ubuntu system". Nov 21, 2020 at 21:51

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